The Need To Keep Margin In Our Lives (via Michael Kelly)

In a culture that encourages fear of missing out there is a price to be paid in having every cent and every moment spoken for.
As Christmas gives way to thoughts of New Year, Michael Kelley writes about the margin that God wants us to factor into our lives and why we shouldn’t reap to the edges of our fields:

We live in a margin-less world. Everything from our time to our money is pretty much spoken for. We are reaping to the end of the fields. In fact, we are going back over the fields of our lives a second and third time, looking for any spare cent or second that has not been accounted for.
This isn’t how we were meant to live. It’s certainly not how we should live if we expect the Lord to bring gospel-oriented opportunities into our lives. Living in a margin-less way is, at the root, a lack of faith in God’s character. Think about it from the perspective of the farmer: What might cause a farmer to reap everything, even the edges, instead of obeying this command of margin?
At some level, it’s fear. Fear that there wouldn’t be enough. Fear of missing some profit. Fear that at some point in the season, the family would be in need. The way you combat that fear is with faith. You believe that God is generous – that God will provide and that God will give us enough. That’s how you leave the edges unreaped.